Kovalev returns to Bell Centre Tuesday night

The Canadiens will be back in action Tuesday night when former Hab Alex Kovalev and the Florida Panthers visit the Bell Centre.

The Panthers signed the 39-year-old Kovalev to a one-year contract on Friday and he scored a goal and added two assists Saturday in a season-opening 5-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Kovalev’s linemate, 19-year-old Jonathan Huberdeau, also had a goal and two assists. The centre on their line is Peter Mueller, the eighth overall pick at the 2006 NHL entry draft, who picked up an assist.

“You can tell he’s a talented kid,” Kovalev told The Associated Press about Huberdeau, the No. 3 pick at the 2001 NHL draft. “He’s really patient with the puck. He can hold on to it. Pretty strong on his feet and it’s really fun to play with a player of that type. You know if you give it to him, you’ll get the puck back. You’re not worried about helping him out. He’s strong enough to make the plays. That makes the job easier.”

About himself, Kovalev said: “I can still stickhandle. I can still skate. I can still make plays. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be wasting my time and someone else’s time. I know I can match anybody in this locker room. I can still play this game. That’s why I’m here.”

You can watch Kovalev and the Panthers in action Monday night when they visit the Ottawa Senators at 7:30 p.m. on RSE and RDS before heading to Montreal to face the Habs Tuesday in a 7:30 p.m. start.

Tickets for the 22 Canadiens’ remaining home games after Tuesday went on sale Sunday and a team official told The Gazette’s Brenda Branswell they were selling at a similar pace as last year.

Some games are sold out, said Donald Beauchamp, the Canadiens’ senior vice- president, communications and community relations. There were still some tickets available for a number of games, Beauchamp said late Sunday afternoon. For more ticket info, click here.

The question Canadiens fans are asking is how many games will unsigned restricted free agent P.K. Subban play for the Canadiens.

Writes Jack Todd in his Monday Morning Quarterback column:

“Sunday, while his teammates were recovering from a bruising loss to Toronto, Subban was in T.O., taking in the Lakers game from the front row. The Lakers need all the help they can get — but the Canadiens need Subban more.”

Todd adds: “Does it matter that Subban is still unsigned? Well, for you Tomas Kaberle fans (both of you) it was great: Kaberle wasn’t all that bad. For those who hope the Canadiens will make you forget last season’s 15th-place finish with a playoff push, not so much.”

Read Dave Stubbs’s column on the opening-night loss and the pregame torch ceremony by clicking here.

Meanwhile, the San Jose Sharks are exploring the possibility of signing former Canadien Scott Gomez, who became an unrestricted free agent last week when the final two seasons of his seven-year, $51-million contract were bought out by the Canadiens.

“We look at it that he’s 33, he’s won two cups,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson told the San Jose Mercury News. “A very versatile player.”

Gomez travelled to Calgary with the Sharks for their season-opening 4-1 win over the Flames on Sunday, but a decision on his future with San Jose might take another few days. Read more by clicking here.

So the Leafs looked close to what they were in Game one. The Sens looked like a hockey team – flying. The Panthers looked like nothing much worth looking at. Now it’s the Habs turn – one game behind them and some practice time in, and I hope they can make a pass at something other than a journalist. No excuses, right?
I hope we see a functional hockey team tonight.

“24CH La série will be broadcast on RDS starting with a special one hour launch show on January 26, followed by six 30 minute episodes throughout the regular season. An English version will also air on TSN2.”

We were discussing earlier about the pocket rocket looking apprehensive during their opening ceremony.
Mario Tremblay just mentioned speaking with him earlier, and Henri did just that. He stopped in his tracks because the flood lamp blinded him. Good thing he did. Those steps are brutal.

Need something positive because right now the Habs lineup does not look like a winning team…They look like other bad teams that when they dont give up too many goals they lose 2-1,1-0 3-2..but when they score they lose 5-4…Half the roster is expansion team material…

So it was just one loss, we’ll see what happens tomorrow night, I get all that. For the most part, I agree too.

But then there is that small, statistical part of my brain that notices how 3 other teams in our division have 4 points already. It’s not a “must win” tomorrow, but it is a “must be better than saturday” if the Habs are going to have any hope this year.

Hopefully the tradition of last year does not continue tues that if the Habs played the night before vs a rested team they lose but the opposite happens when the Habs are rested the oppositin wins or badly outplays the Habs..even in a home game

No need to worry, no one is giving up on Galchenyuk. There is one clown on here that is all over him for not being a superstar in his first NHL game. Most of us realizes he is our best prospect in 30 years. If he stays in the NHL this year it will take him a while to fully adjust to the speed and intensity of the League but he will be a beauty in the near future for sure.

I am not a clown or a troll, I just am a little trollish when i’m in a bad mood.

In all seriousness I did not have High hopes for the kid in his first game, but I was taken aback by how much he seemed to float around and shy away from traffic, never good attributes in today’s NHL, I’m not expecting him to be a power forward, but to score goals and make plays, one must go into high traffic areas at times. In Sarnia he had a reputation for winning puck battles, playing a good cycle game, going through traffic if necessary, but he didn’t even try to do that in his first game. It made me wonder if the descriptions of him and Grigorenko were mismatched……

and then there’s the Komarov thing: he did nothing when he was abused by a leaf pest who was 4 INCHES SHORTER AND 25 POUNDS LIGHTER (!!!!!) it brought back unpleasant memories of the Marchand-Sedin incident from the 2011 Cup Finals.

That is a well reasoned argument. You made some valid points. Much better then just ripping the kid and calling him names.

He will never be a big physical presence if that is what you are looking for. But he is tenacious on the puck and is willing to go into the dirty areas to make a play. As his confidence grows he will display more of that, if they send him back to Sarnia you might have to wait till next year to see that from him. He is still very nervous out there.

His elite vision, passing, hands and shot will become more evident when his confidence grows. Give him some time and you will fall in love unless you expect Prust-like physicality.

Welcome to the circus. You’ll excuse me if I hope that your first post is off the mark with regard to this season. 😉

Personally, I think it’s too early to say much with confidence. But saturday was ugly for sure. I agree about Galchenyuk, and I hope they don’t drop his ice time next game. He needs to play, especially with only a 4 game window. If they do play 4 more like that though, no doubt that the kid should head back to Sarnia. No point in wasting a year of contract.

Have read lots of comments today and boy oh boy, we lose one game and apparently the coach is an idiot and the season is over?

This whole Eller thing, being used as a spare in practice, big freakin deal! The guy had a bad game, the coach wasn’t impressed with his work on the ice and who knows what went on off the ice? Maybe Eller’s attitude on the bench or in the dressing room stunk too?

Or maybe, just maybe, Therrien knows he’s an important piece, sees something and is trying to light a fire under his rear end?

We’re in for a tough year, we knew that coming in. For the Canadiens to make the playoffs EVERYTHING is going to have to fall into place. The defense, even with Subban, is a tad thin. Without Subban, the season is toast.

To put the last 20 years of the Habs organization into perspective, I wonder what is going to happen to the Torch celebrations in about 20-30 years time.

I mean chances are the legions and links to the glory days such as Beliveau, Richard, etc won’t be around anymore.

It is possible our kids will be watching Donald Brashear pass the torch on to Turner Stevenson who will pass it on to Patrick Poulin who will then pass it on to Mathieu Darche who will pass it on to Valeri Bure who will pass it on to Mario Roberge.

…I know My Son (17) is a rabid Habs’ Fan here in the heart of Canoodle Land, but that is all a result of My brainwashing and telling Him since He was first held in My arms about My memories of ‘The Golden Years’

…Our Habs must begin rewriting new Legends and Heroes …sooner, rather than later

____________________________________________________
…for the foreseeable future I will be annoyingly and shamelessly crusading for Our Montreal Canadiens to retire Toe Blake’s number 6 …and add His banner in the rafters next to Our other former Greats
…now some of You may believe Toe was only a Great Coach, and as a Player, did not quite rate such an honor …and/or do not want yet another low-number unavailable to contemporary Players
…maybe forgetting Toe Blake won an NHL scoring championship, the Hart Trophy and a Lady Byng, and led Our Habs in scoring in 6 seasons of His Hall Of Fame playing career …He was an essential component with The Rocket and Elmer Lach on ‘The Punch Line’ which was the most feared scoring line of it’s day
…most remember Toe Blake as the genius Coach of the Montreal Canadiens at the cusp of Our Golden Era …the Golden Era that most of Us were inspired by to follow Our Habs as if it was ‘a religion’ unto It’s own
…Toe Blake’s name is on 11 rings of the Stanley Cup; 8 as Our Coach, 2 as a Player for the Montreal Canadiens and one as a Montreal Maroon
…Toe Blake was the ‘heart and soul’ Whom inspired and ‘showed the way’ to Our great Players of the time, both as a Player and as Our Coach
…His Legacy is greatly taken for granted, I strongly believe, by the fact Toe Blake’s number 6 is not represented yet in the rafters of the Bell Centre
…the totality of Toe Blake’s legacy, as a Player and Our Coach, to the History and exceptional success of the Montreal Canadiens as the most famous brand in the hockey world is way past the overdue stage
…I wish to request all Montreal Canadiens Fans to join with Ian Cobb and I to right a wrong
…I suggested to Ian to theme this year’s Summit on Toe Blake …to incorporate some homage to Toe …maybe even make a request to Hurley’s Tavern to try to replicate the ambiance of the famed former Toe Blake’s Tavern
…I will leave that to Ian, of what is doable in that regard …knowing Ian, He is more than capable (Note Bene: such may not be possible this October, because of the projected lock-out)
…meanwhile, some clear input must be made by Habs’ Fans that agree with the objective, to let Their feelings and opinions be known to Geoff Molson and Montreal Canadiens Management
…that means You !!! Boys and Girls
…if this is something You would like to make right as I and Ian do, I provide the following mail contacts to send Your requests to ‘Retire Number 6 !!!’
…if anyOne out there have other suggestions please let Ian and I know …they will be considered and appreciated

The following are the most relevant to send your testimonial to Retire Number 6 !!!:
Geoff Molson: President and Owner (Twitter; @gmolsonchc)
Kevin Gilmore: VP Operations

Hey the terrible Habs pp is at 20% lol….Without PK the pp has no chance being anything more than bottom third in the NHL….After Markov there is not one d on this team that can help the pp consistently….Sorry Diaz and Weber fans neither are the answer…

Bergevin’s in a tough place, he could make today’s team better by just signing PK, but then he’s set a precedent for the future and he’ll have to give Tinordi and Beauleau nice fat contracts out of their entry level.

You will be wanting to take that back once the Big Bad Bruins come into town and rough up the Habs once again. I would say no need for Kaberle, Diaz, Weber, Bouillon and Gorges on the team. 2/5 is enough. (Gorges and Diaz although I have always liked Frankie the Bull)

I know I said I would wait a few games before complaining about Therrien … but come on. “I want to make PK a better person”??

Is he a hockey coach or Mother Theresa? Who the hell does he think he is?? Hey, Michele, when you’re done with PK, can you come over here and make me a better person too?

The government should relieve Therrien as coach and send him to work out the whole Gaza Strip thing.

I want to give him a chance, but he’s one game in and he’s already said what has to be the stupidest thing any Habs’ coach had ever said.

It’s such a WTF statement, Bergevin and Molson are probably having concussion-like symptoms just from the face palm.

EDIT: Also, sorry to criticize the hardworking Gazette staff, but did anyone in the media challenge or at least ask for clarification what Therrien was saying? Can we get Jess Rusnak back here for a few minutes so some questions get asked?

“EDIT: Also, sorry to criticize the hardworking Gazette staff, but did anyone in the media challenge or at least ask for clarification what Therrien was saying? Can we get Jess Rusnak back here for a few minutes so some questions get asked?

Full Breezer 4 Life
”

Which is why I ask the question what prompted Stubbs to comment on this so vehemently at such a ‘late time’. I dont know if you followed my post detailing Therrien’s full remarks at least two or three days ago.

I am glad you are calling them out! I am fed up looking like I am beating a dead horse.

Since you have said this: “I know I said I would wait a few games before complaining about Therrien … but come on. “I want to make PK a better person”?? Is he a hockey coach or Mother Theresa?”

I can say that when I heard him say this I felt ill. I hated the Therrien hiring, and this is exactly the kind of reason why. He hits all the wrong notes all the time. You watched the interview segments posted here. Did he say even one thing — ONE THING — that you or I couldn’t have said? He sounds exactly like a mediocre bantam coach in Revelstoke.

Yeah, Ok…they’ve played one game (with a whole week prior to prepare). They’ve inherited the fiscal/talent mess from our last regime of buffoonery. Sounds as if you would prefer Goat Cheese and Monterrey Jacques for another couple of years.

I know we, the fans have endured 20 years of mismanagement. We are currently a bottom third team. Sad to say there will be no quick fixes. It’s going to take time to turn things around. Mistakes will continue to be made (if indeed the handling of Eller is a mistake…but I’ll give the coach (at least for now) the benefit of the doubt.

Does anybody here still think that Jacques Martin was out of line when he said that Subban plays for PK and not the team on Anti Chambre???
Why does he think he deserves a different treatment than Price or Pacioretty? They were every bit as important to this team as he is and they took the bridge contract.
At this point, I don’t care if they trade him for a good return… You either wanna play in Montreal or you don’t.

Perhaps you could enlighten us on what Percival Karl has been doing since the lockout began – and ended – to advance the cause of hockey. Forget his his self-promotion on televised sports and weather broadcasts – I’m talking about getting out to minor hockey practices or skating outdoors with the fans in Montreal the way Josh Gorges did. Was there any of that from young Mr Subban – ?

Last time I checked, his signature was affixed to a valid contract to play NHL hockey for the Habs, a contract BTW that he chooses not to honour at this time because, well, who knows ? I frankly don’t give a dam how much bigger, better, badder etc etc he and his agent think he is : he’s behaving like he’s bigger than the game right now and, for that reason, I would have zero qualms seeing him moved * provided * Bergevin gets team-mindedness and full value in return, and he would.

One other thing : you’re not the only guy on here who knows his way around the Caricom, so consider putting a little water in your wine and going easy on those who acknowledge PK as a talented hockey player without holding him in reverence as some kind of saviour. And yes, I just said that to your face.

D Mex, do you understand how contract negotiations work? The NHL is not a fast-food business where wages are predetermined for most/all employees, regardless of skillsets and abilities. Professional athletes have the right to negiotate salaries and contract terms based on their own perception of their value, not just the team perception. If PK or his agent believe(s) the contract being offered is below market-value, they are not required to sign it, the same way MB isn’t required to give the term and $ they want. A contract gets signed when the two parties find a comfortable middle ground, not because one side comes to the realization that it owes it to the masses.

It looks to me the sides are playing hard ball, but it is my sense that one will move if not cave sooner rather than later,

Some people just don’t do nuances very well. Sports is different from politics: just because you’re a fan, PK doesn’t owe you to leave money on the table. His career might end before that time people assume he’ll get the big fat paycheck. You are allowed to think PK does not deserve $4 or 5 M a year, but to deny him the right to bargain based on his own perception of his value is preposterous…

I stand corrected : he’s an RFA without contract. Still, I’d love to hear about anything he has done, or is doing, to promote anything that extends beyond his own aura.
Believe I did hear once that negotiation is premised on exchange of perspective, but only once mind you. I observe reports on the PK negotiations and wonder what, in his perspective, he feels he has done to support demands that aid in keeping him on the sidelines in an already shortened season. His right to push those demands and, thankfully, Bergevin’s right to stand fast.
Do I consider myself a Habs fan ? Most certainly, and my favorites on D include Savard and Robinson. Doug Harvey was just before me but I trust those who say he was one of the best. All of them share one basic trait that is the polar opposite to Subban – they are all LH shots. Thankfully, Beaulieu and Tinordi are as well, and I hope they turn out to be team-minded to boot.
Zero qualms seeing Subban moved – now, or in due course. Zero qualms.

Carey Price was a goaltender coming off a horrid season who had lost his starting job when he took his bridge contract.

Max Pacioretty had 20 goals and 49 career points in 123 career games when he took his bridge contract. He also had a broken neck and major concussion to recover from.

PK Subban plays defence and has 21 goals and 76 points in 161 games today. He played the most minutes on the team last year. Was the highest scoring D on the team last year. Played against top lines for a 28th place club and was a +9 last year. Oh and he’s the same age (within a few months) as Max Pac who just got his 6 year deal.

I think the problem is the Gorges contract. The Habs low balled him after his knee surgery and when the at the time Habs brain trust realized that a 2nd pairing defense man was playing top pairing minutes and was blocking more shots than Budaj, they decided to throw him a long term contract at way over his value.

If Subban wants to sign for 4.5 million for 6 years without a NTC than maybe. I think he and Habs should settle on 3.5 million for two years and let them see what gives down the road.

Another problem is the Habs are hamstrung with Gionta, Plekanec, Kaberle, Markov and to a lesser degree Cole.

Even though LA managed to get Carter and Richards, they had all the other pieces in place. Nevertheless, I like how Holmgren managed assets much better than how Gainey did.

Subban is an RFA with no arbitration rights.

If anything, this is all the more reason to send Galchenyuk back to Sarnia and bring up the kids slowly. Subban was brought because the Habs had no depth and were always nickle and diming the kids while spending like drunken sailors on so-called veterans.

If the Habs can get real value for Subban on the trade market they should pull the trigger, but with eyes on making the play-offs after 2013-14. This season and next more are bridge years for the Habs than anything. That is what the pro-Subban crowd doesn’t seem to try to digest.

If anybody made a serious offer Subban the Habs should entertain it. Ditto for Plekanec.

I was quietly hoping last year that the Habs would make a play for Turris. At the risk of causing an uproar, thought Plex for Turris and something else could have been done. This habs team won’t be ready for primetime for a couple years, nothing against Plex just thinking longterm.

It may be a valid assertion by Berskire based on a reasonable explanation by Bergevin. But Berkshire, and I suspect you also, give no mention of what seems an ‘evolution’ of Bergevin’s views towards Subban when you go over all the statements of Bergevin (from his own mouth) since day 1 of his tenure as GM.

I have gone through it all and wont here but you may find it interesting if you re-examine the chronology and contents of his remarks.

Forgive me if I dont know if you mock me or not Sir! Either way I thank you for reading and replying. It adds to the conversation. I am confident that all I have done is examine the timing, tone, and contents of all the words of the parties I have mentioned… available in the public forum.

I have not had a chance to read any Habs news today but I take it that there has been some kind of announcement that Eller will sit tomorrow?

You know I was completely unwilling to throw in the towel after one game because evidently nothing has changed but this gives me pause. If I were not playing a game myself in Toronto Tuesday I would consider driving down the 401, buying the most expensive scalper ticket I can find near the Habs bench just so that I could display a professionally printed and laminated sign saying:WTF Therrien? I mean seriously WTF?”

Among the inexcusably depressing features of last season was that no matter how much blame there was to go around the only players who ever seemed to get benched were Eller and Subban.
Plus ca change…

This makes it incredibly bittersweet because I have been eagerly anticipating seeing Brendan Gallagher get his chance. But surely to God if you have to sit someone from Saturday’s lineup it would be White or Armstrong.

Apparently Kassian played well on Saturday but that trade is just a head scratcher.

I guess it just shows that when one of your young talented players who seems to be ready to take a bigger role is really just getting too big for his britches and you have to trade him to teach these kids a lesson, you might not get full value in return and could end up…. oh never mind.

Am I the only one who thinks the quality for this website has gone down tremendously over time?

We barely get updates or any particular analysis or any small leaks like we used to 3 years or so ago.

I enjoy it here, I enjoy the conversation, and I am not saying its bad, but certainly this website used to be more lively with updates. instead, I find myself following three separate journalists on twitter to find out what’s going on.

Eddie Lopaz, you still here? I value your opinion and your keen eye. You don’t try to gloss up your words or cite obscure bits of data to make your case. What is your opinion on Eller? Specifically, how do you think he plays with the puck on his stick once across the red line?

What I see is a guy who holds on to it too long. A guy who either doesn’t see his wingers or doesn’t know how to get the puck to them or doesn’t want to get the puck to them. I see slick hands but no natural finish.

But you know your hockey as well as anyone on here – what do you think?

Eller sits but DD who couldn’t do a thing without Cole and Patches and couldn’t win a face off on the power play ( first wave was terrible) – plays.
Put DD with Moen and see what happens.
Give Eller a chance – shouldn’t be the whipping boy!

So if Eller only sits one game and plays the next 10 in a row and plays better, can we still put MT in concrete boots and have him fall in the St. Lawrence?

I didn’t like the hiring of MT either, and in the long run I don’t see him as the coach. However, we are rebuilding and chances are he is here for 1- 2 years. Also, Eller didn’t play a strong game, someone has to sit in order to get a look at Gallagher.

Therrien may indeed be making a huge mistake, but he also may not be. Do we really all judge everything based on 1 game?

What was the expectation of this team. If they are competitive in games this season and find a way to make some trades involving our excess offensive Dmen I think that is a productive season. Clearly I have generalized my expectations to the lowest denominator but, it isn’t like Eller scored a hat trick either. And I still believe he will be good for this team.

Heck I remember getting benched one game my Senior year University, reality was I hadn’t played a strong game and I came back alot better. Not comparing me directly, but 1 game will not ruin the kid, nor will 2.

Heck PK was benched a few games, and he is still considered the 1st or 2nd best player on the team, did that ruin him?

So, I spend my whole day besieged by students to come out and discover the possibility of Eller being a healthy scratch tomorrow.

Let’s just say that if that happens, I’m done with this team until Therrien is gone. Because I’m really not interested in watching another cluster*$%! coach destroying young players’ confidence the way we had to endure under Jacques Martin.

Ed, I happen to love Eller and I have high hopes. But I must be frank (sorry HabFab), if getting benched for a game or two damages his psychi, then he isn’t as tough as I thought he was mentally.

I know about the past, but this isn’t the old regime doing this, this is a new regime. They may indeed make the same mistakes, and I also hope and think MT has spoken to Eller. JM never spoke to players when benching them, this has been reported how his communication was terrible.

I am not liking the benching either, but we don’t know what is being said or talked about. We can’t overreact after the team plays 1 terrible game.

He may be Ed, but I just happen to think there will be a revolving door of players going to press box until it is decided officially if indeed Galchenyuk and also Gallagher are staying up with big club.

What exactly is this team trying to accomplish? I, for one, can’t figure this out.

Look, we all knew they were going to flat out suck this season. Anybody believing otherwise was probably delusional.

But I don’t get the signings. We have a logjam on defence, so they go out and sign Francis Bouillon, forcing them to sit one of Diaz or Weber, young guys who need to play so we can figure out what we have and/or maximize their return when they are traded.

We’ve got a surplus of guys who can play garbage minutes on the third and fourth lines in the form of Leblanc, White, Palushaj, Eller, and even Galchenyuk. But we went out and signed a a dud in Colby Armstrong and re-signed Nokelainen.

This team NEEDS to suffer through its kids making mistakes and getting better. Yet they seem hell-bent on prolonging that development pain by not playing the kids.

I can get behind a tank if this team can figure out how to do it properly. But they just can’t seem to pull their head out of their rear end long enough to figure out that signing retreads and plugs like Moen and Prust is not going to lead you anywhere.

Thought this was about whether Eller played a strong enough game to deserve to stay in lineup? Yes our team is deep in third and 4th line players. Hopefully Galchenyuk, Collberg, etc.. will help that in the future. for giving depth to 1st and 2nd line.

Boullion and Armstrong won’t be here next year, nor will the Nokia cell phone which seems to have intermittent service. Palushaj was injured, or I suspect he is up with Habs instead of Gallagher at this point, same for Leblanc who still hasn’t shown he is recovered from ankle sprain.

Weber and Diaz had plenty of chances last season to prove they are worthy of minutes, I hope 1 of them is traded sooner than later.

The team is indeed building, but this is the NHL not the Olympics and players like Galchenyuk, Plex, Gionta need some players like Prust, White and Moen on the ice or they will be getting run over by the likes of Boston and Philly.

Chirs I agree on the Bouillon comment, if we were to pick up an extra D it should have been a big right handed tank. I’m ok with Armstrong. Moen i was questionning myself and I guess if they knew they could sign Prust Moen he was not needed. The Nok’s signing was useless too

Well, the besieged part comes about because whatever is being passed about as mathematics in the Ontario high school system is as far from mathematics as you can possibly get. So I have to undo the math damage that has been inflicted on them while also trying to teach them the science concepts that I’m responsible for.

I truly feel bad for these kids because they are being screwed over by the curriculum in a massive way. I’m not teaching math, but I’ve been working 70 hour weeks the past two weeks trying to help my students catch up on the math that they should have been taught and weren’t.

If I had children, there is absolutely no way in hell I would let them go through the public school system in Ontario with the abysmal mathematics education they are receiving right now.

I have a huge problem when I can’t get my own material taught because the kids aren’t ready for it despite having all the courses that should have prepared them more than adequately. But that is the situation that I’m finding myself in.

In terms of the math curriculum in Ontario, we are on the third iteration in the past decade. Some things are definitely falling through the cracks. The big ones that seem to have become rather universal weaknesses for most of the students:

Algebra

Everything you hear from physics and engineering professors is that the calculus knowledge of today’s students is lacking. This is actually true (and I’ll address that), but algebra is far and away the bigger problem.

If you know how to work with and manipulate equations, I can teach you science, whether it be physics or chemistry or engineering. But if your algebra is weak, it is like trying to teach somebody who can’t read English the intricacies of Shakespearean drama.

I’ve seen an uncomfortable number of kids who can’t even manage the most basic of algebraic manipulatons. I had a math pre-test for first year students last year that was the following:

Show that (a^3*b^2 – 2a^2*b^2) / (a^2*b – a*b^2) = ab(a-2) / (a-b).

About 75% of the students in the class couldn’t perform that factorization. We’ve been doing that test for years (it is part of a math inventory test that many universities are part of) and after years of consistently good scoring on that question the bottom has suddenly fallen out.

The next question was to prove the answer by substituting in appropriate values. The VAST majority of the students chose a = 1 and b=1, never once stopping to question the issue of a 0 in the denominator.

This is BASIC math. This used to be well in hand by Grade 10, and Grade 11 by the latest. There is no way that any university student should not get the answer to that correct.

When you get into systems of equations, the students are quite simply sunk. A good example is momentum conservation. Students can handle 1D momentum, start to have huge issues with 2D momentum, and if you throw elastic collisions into the mix (system of 3 equations with 3 unknowns), they generally haven’t a clue where to even begin.

Finally, students have this deep-rooted obsession with plugging in numbers. If we take a question and give one group the algebraic version (no numbers) and the other group the numbers version, the numbers students almost always do better. This is counter-intuitive, as algebraic solutions are almost always faster, neater and less prone to rounding or carrying errors. But for some reason, the panic switch in their brain trips when students see questions with nothing but symbols.

Calculus

The students actually do very well with derivatives. Unfortunately for them, we stop doing derivatives after week 2 of first year. After that, everything is pretty much integration. And integration is either not being taught at the high school level or is being taught so poorly that the students are completely lost when they get to university.

I can’t tell you the number of students who ask me where the d goes when we integrate dx or dL or some other integrand. I’m sorry, but how the heck did they never see an infinitesimal before in high school? Why do they not know what that means?

This is the kind of thing that, having been exposed to it before, can be taught relatively quickly. The majority of my class have never seen this notation before so I’m wasting precious teaching time (I only have 36 hours over four months to cover a very intensive course where the vast majority of the material has never been seen before) on something that they SHOULD already know.

Trigonometry

A surprising number of students STILL struggle with SOH CAH TOA, which amazes me. I’m routinely shocked at how many of them don’t know the sin/cos/tan of the key numbers (30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees) or the magic triangles (3, 4, 5 and 5, 12, 13). Those were just drilled into us in Grade 11 math.

Most students also struggle with graphing trigonometric functions. This is a direct result of an over-reliance on graphing calculators in many schools. While I used to begrudge never being allowed to use a calculator in high school math, I now see that the teachers did me a huge favour.

Vectors

Vectors are probably the most poorly taught concept in high school. Students should just learn vectors in terms of unit vectors right from the get go. While useful, I would almost be in favour of banning the Sine Law and Cosine Law from high school math. There seems to be a strong preference at the high school level to solve problems using that methodology, which is really an awful way for the students to learn vector addition and subtraction.

There are a number of problems with this, the biggest of which rears its ugly head for the engineers. Using the Sine or Cosine Law when dealing with three-dimensional vector problems (the kind that they start with in semester 1 in engineering and physics) is a recipe for a massive headache at the very least, and rampant mistakes and confusion is the norm.

Teaching students how to work with the three Cartesian unit vectors (i, j, k) for vector addition and subtraction should be the primary focus. Showing the students how to perform 2×2 and 3×3 determinants (especially for cross products) and cross products using those vectors broken up into their components would also serve the students very well. Finally, teaching them what a unit vector actually is and how it works would go a long way to reducing the unnecessary confusion that these kids reach when they get to university and have to learn how to do things the proper way.

I used to love teaching students from other provinces because, despite their lack of Grade 13, they still seemed to have a stronger handle on math than Ontario students. This has only been exacerbated by the chaos in our math curriculum.

When you combine this chaos with universities that will admit anybody into their programs to get more government money, you’ve got a crisis. I tutored a first-year engineering student about three years ago who was admitted into the engineering program with a scholarship despite not having taken physics OR calculus in high school. But their average was so high in everything else that the university felt they couldn’t pass them up. You can guess how that story ended.

As for the having to teach kids stuff, yes, I do have to teach kids stuff. I have to teach them an awful lot of stuff that they’ve never seen in high school, all of which requires that they have mastered certain math concepts that we were assured the students would have mastered. This is not the case. Teachers and professors at all levels have to understand that we are all cogs in a machine that has to produce a student with the appropriate knowledge and skills when they graduate at the end. When people start failing to cover ALL of their curriculum in an adequate way, this lack of knowledge cascades through the process. The analogy we use in university all the time is that we are still expected to build students to the same ceiling. But the floor has dropped considerably, meaning that we’ve got far more to do in the same amount of time. This is not a feasible learning environment for the students (don’t forget, we’re not doing this in an environment of 20-30 students…I have 337 students in my class right now), and they are the ones that suffer.

It doesn’t help that university math courses are so gung-ho on proofs as opposed to first teaching them the practical math that they need for their science (engineering, physics, chemistry, and biology) courses and then worrying about the more esoteric proofs and identities. I don’t dispute that these things have value, but the order in which they are taught is questionable.

Weird that eller might sit in the pressbox when it was both dd and pleky who took penalties,the later leading to the game winning goal. Something jacques martin would do. How about he sit moen instead and have a 3rd line where all 3 players can provide offense?